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A red pencil is your friend! It took me this long to figure that out. When you are running a few programs with students all on different levels it really helps to just go through the manual and underline the key words as they come up. Words such as: Cheerful Cursive, English, Dictation, Spelling List, Writing, Copy etc. I found my mind can tend to skim over those LA boxes and miss stuff. A red pencil just gone through the whole manual, takes a few minutes and will keep you from skipping things. If you are like me you read the directions once and saw that they repeat so you think you get the pattern but miss stuff sometimes anyway. A little red mark on the key words keeps you from skipping over stuff. Not rocket science but since it helped me just putting the idea out there for the organizationally challenged as myself.

Great idea! I know the first time I used Bigger I would often miss the spelling or dictation I'm doing better this time around, but occasionally my DAUGHTER reminds me if I forgot something...

Thanks for sharing. I really like this idea as well! How do you use your manual? Do you cut the spine off or just use tabs/sticky notes to mark sections? I bought a couple of guides used that were cut apart and I think I prefer the guides I have that are intact. I'm thinking about re-buying the cut apart ones . . . Hmmmm.

Either way I'm going to use a highlighter or a red pencil to mark those key words.

abrightmom wrote: Thanks for sharing. I really like this idea as well! How do you use your manual? Do you cut the spine off or just use tabs/sticky notes to mark sections? I bought a couple of guides used that were cut apart and I think I prefer the guides I have that are intact. I'm thinking about re-buying the cut apart ones . . . Hmmmm.

I cut the spine on my first guide I ever bought and I will never do that again. I use them all at least two to three times so I want the to last. I cover them in contact paper and leave them in tact. If you do the inside flap them you can put a schedule in the inside over the contact paper and put more contact paper over that and each time you use it just take the old schedule off. I actually just use either block scheduling with no times or a check list depending where my head is at in the year. Either way works great for me. Really the guide covers it so I just like reminder of the things I need to check each day. I love the guide books to me they last longer if you just cover them with contact paper and use them as is. This is my second trip through Bigger and it is holding up well. I am not too nice on books so that is saying something.

Okay, thank-you! The contact paper on the cover IS the answer. That is definitely how I prefer it.

Your idea to put the schedule on the inside cover under contact paper is fantastic. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!

Awesome ideas, water2wine! I love these! I too have been guilty of thinking I know the routine and missing something. We went half of last year not hi-lighting the main idea of the written narrations. Thanks for sharing these great tips!

In Christ,
Julie

my3sons wrote: We went half of last year not hi-lighting the main idea of the written narrations.

Ummm, oh.
We're doing the same thing!

Great idea! This is very helpful!

Thanks for sharing!
Carrie